Genetics Society of America names Sue Biggins as recipient of Novitski Prize

Award recognizes extraordinary level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity in solving significant problems in genetics research

BETHESDA, MD - The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce that Sue Biggins, PhD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) has been awarded the Society's Edward Novitski Prize. The award recognizes Dr. Biggins' extraordinary level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity in solving significant problems in genetics research--namely, her groundbreaking research on the molecular mechanisms of chromosome segregation, a process essential for cell division and frequently impaired in cancer.

"Dr. Biggins' work represents a single integrated attack on the biochemistry, structure, biophysics, and biology of a sophisticated molecular machine responsible for the accuracy of chromosome segregation," said Needhi Bhalla, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Her perseverance, innovation, and intellectual creativity produced extraordinary insights into the mechanics of chromosome segregation and paves the way for exciting future studies."

Dr. Biggins has been studying the kinetochore, a molecular machine that mediates chromosome segregation during cell division, for the last 20 years. Before her work, kinetochores had been challenging to isolate and investigate due to their complex, dynamic nature. Dr. Biggins tackled this problem in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in which the chromosome segregation machinery is a simplified version of that found in humans. In what her peers describe as a 'tour de force,' she accomplished the first isolation of the kinetochore in any organism by developing an elegant one-step method. This breakthrough made it possible for numerous labs to carry out in-depth studies of this complex machine, including her own lab's publication of the first molecular structure of a kinetochore in collaboration with Tamir Gonen's lab. Dr. Biggins also reconstituted various aspects of kinetochore function in several collaborative studies with Chip Asbury's lab that helped to dissect mechanisms behind the diverse roles of kinetochores. Taken together, her innovative, interdisciplinary research has helped to shape the current understanding of chromosome segregation and has laid the foundation for a detailed, mechanistic dissection of the varied processes that underlie it.

Dr. Biggins has been a GSA member for fifteen years, is an Associate Editor of the Society's flagship journal GENETICS, and has served on the organizing committee of GSA's biannual Yeast Genetics Meeting since 2010. She also belongs to the American Society for Cell Biology, where she recently served as an elected Council member. Early in her career, Dr. Biggins was awarded postdoctoral fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund and the American Cancer Society, followed by a Beckman Young Investigator Award. In 2013, she received the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology for her work on kinetochores and the McDougall Mentoring Award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The Edward Novitski Prize recognizes an extraordinary level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity in the solution of significant problems in genetics research. The award recognizes scientific achievement that stands out from the body of innovative work, that is deeply impressive to creative masters in the field, and that solves a difficult problem in genetics. It recognizes the beautiful and intellectually ingenious experimental design and execution involved in genetics scientific discovery.

The Prize was established in 2007 by the Novitski family and GSA to honor the memory of Edward Novitski (1918-2006), a Drosophila geneticist and lifelong GSA member, who specialized in chromosome mechanics and elucidating meioisis through the construction of modified chromosomes.

To learn more about the GSA awards, and to view a list of previous recipients, please see http://www.genetics-gsa.org/awards.

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About the Genetics Society of America (GSA)

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Genetics Society of America names Sue Biggins as recipient of Novitski Prize